AD #2523 – New Ranger Exceeds Ford’s Expectations, FCA Won’t Air Ads During Super Bowl, Honda’s Profit Plunges

On today’s show…FCA is putting out a bunch of Super Bowl ads but they will not be on television during the game…Honda’s profit takes a massive hit…and ZF started an in-house Shark Tank program to get innovative ideas from its employees. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

HONDA’S PROFIT PLUNGES
Yowch, Honda just ended a really rough quarter. Its net profit plummeted 68% over the last three months. Most of that was due to currency exchange but Honda also saw big increases in selling and R&D expenses, and big payouts for litigation over Takata airbag lawsuits.

FERRARI UP STRONG IN 2018
Meanwhile, Ferrari had a really good year. It sold 9,251 cars, up 10% from the year before. And it posted a net profit of 787 million euros, up a whopping 46%. The stock jumped $14 a share on the news, closing yesterday at $126 a share. But Merrill Lynch thinks it will do a lot better than that. It thinks the stock will go to $150 a share and put a buy rating on it.

BMW REVEALS RANGE OF PLUG-IN 7 SERIES
BMW released information about the plug-in hybrid version of the new 7 Series that wasn’t available when we first reported about it. Based on the new WLTP emission test, it will have an all-electric range of between 50 and 58 kilometers depending on the model, which is between 31 and 36 miles.

AUDI TO SHOW 4TH E-TRON MODEL
Audi will show its fourth e-tron model at the Geneva auto show. It’s said to be a compact CUV that’s about the same size as a Q3.

HONDA URBAN ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROTOTYPE
Honda will also be in Geneva with a prototype version of its Urban Electric Vehicle. Let’s hope the styling stays true to the concept.

FCA WON’T AIR ADS ON TV DURING SUPER BOWL
Automakers are a big presence during the Super Bowl. And over the last 10 years, FCA has created some of the most memorable ads. However, you won’t see any of their commercials aired on TV during the game, instead the company is releasing them on digital platforms. It launched three ads on Tuesday, two on Thursday and will release two more today. One reason FCA is doing this is to save cash. The Detroit Free Press reports the company spent $42 million on ads for last year’s Super Bowl and it’s estimated that a 30-second spot will cost $5.5 million this year. And those numbers don’t include production costs. The infamous Eminem ad from 2011 cost $10 million to make for example. And with the media landscape changing, FCA wanted to experiment with its ads to see if social media is a better outlet than television.

Still to come…Ford says it’s going into massive production overtime to meet demand for the new Ranger.

PSA TO TEST AVs IN CHINA
The PSA Group just took another step in its AVA or Autonomous Vehicle for All program, which aims to provide safe and intuitive autonomous cars for all customers. It has received a license to start AV driving tests on open roads in China. It has been testing autonomous vehicles in France since 2015, but wants to try to integrate its technology into China’s ecosystem since the environment, infrastructure, map system and road users are different.

NEW RANGER EXCEEDS FORD’S EXPECTATIONS
Looks like early demand for the Ranger is exceeding Ford’s expectations. The pickup went on sale last month and according to Ford has interest from 300,000 online shoppers. So, starting today the automaker says its Wayne Assembly plant where the Ranger is made in Michigan is “going into massive overtime.” Kumar Galhotra, president of North American operations said Ford is now putting 90 percent of its capital expenditure into producing trucks and SUVs.

SUBARU TEASES NEW LEGACY
The big, vertical screen craze that Tesla started is now making its way to Subaru. The automaker teased this picture of the interior of the all-new 2020 Legacy that will make its debut at the Chicago Auto Show on March 7th.

CONTINENTAL CREATES HOLOGRAPHIC HUD
But could big screens become obsolete in the near future? Head up displays are a great way of conveying information to the driver, but they take up a lot of room inside the instrument panel. So the supplier Continental came up with a thinner HUD that spreads images across a flat pane of glass, which reflect onto the windshield. It also projects images in red, blue and green to achieve full color displays. It also can project augmented reality images that, tied in with the navigation system, can project your route right onto the road, as you see here in light blue. So instead of looking at your nav, you just follow the directions that are literally on the road. Continental says the holographic HUD could be in production by model year 2023.

The supplier ZF is looking for innovative ideas from its employees and so it started a Shark Tank program to see what they can come up with. And we’ll have more about that, right after this.

HOW ZF IS ‘DEMOCRATIZING INNOVATION’
In the past, innovation was only done by the research and development team. But for the last two years, the supplier ZF has asked all of its employees to submit ideas for possible investment. On Autoline This Week, ZF explains how the company is, as they put it, democratizing innovation.

(The ATW preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

You can watch that entire discussion right now on our website, Autoline.tv or just look for it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.